The present invention relates generally to systems for traffic monitoring and management. More particularly, it relates to apparatus and method for utilizing a two-way radio transceiver to accurately and automatically collect traffic data from vehicles as they traverse a roadway, bridge, tunnel or other form of transport, such as a railway.
An increasing number of vehicles are traveling over progressively more congested transportation networks. Collecting accurate data with regard to the use of those networks would be a great aid in efficiently managing those networks. Analysis of data, such as vehicle origination and destination points, speed of vehicles traveling between fixed points, and types of vehicles utilizing a particular route, would provide network engineers and planners with significant information with which to control and manage the network. Such information would also aid the network management authorities in planning expansions, planning repairs, and setting toll rates. Through efficient management practices, made possible by the availability of accurate network use information, managing authorities could reduce congestion, cut costs, and limit air pollution associated with vehicle emissions.
A number of prior art systems exist that provide data regarding vehicular traffic. These systems typically utilize vehicle detector technology such as inductive loops cut into a roadway, infrared detectors, acoustic detectors, cameras and/or radar counters. Such systems identify the presence of vehicles and thereby provide data from which analysts can roughly establish traffic density and vehicle speeds. The prior art systems do not provide a mechanism for collecting individual vehicle origination, and destination data. Additionally, those systems do not provide any means for storing or processing data within individual vehicles for later retrieving. Moreover, the prior art systems do not provide any way for a network management authority to communicate useful information, such as the availability of an alternate route, to individual vehicle operators.
Some proposed systems provide a one-way backscatter radio reflection communication signal. Those systems achieve this by utilizing a reflective vehicle identification tag. Reflective tag based systems suffer from several drawbacks. Perhaps, the primary drawback is their inability to have information written into a vehicle memory, thereby providing historical data for the individual vehicle. Also, reflective tag based systems do not perform accurately enough to determine the particular lane in which a vehicle is operating. They also do not provide any vehicle data storage or manipulation capability. Consequently, any data collected must be stored and processed in a centralized network computer system. Moreover, the reflective tag based systems also do not provide a communication interface by which relevant traffic information can be relayed to a vehicle operator. Consequently, reflective tag based systems are inadequate for use by network management authorities to efficiently manage any particular transportation network.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a system for gathering data transmitted from the vehicles, such as vehicle origination and destination points, vehicle speed, and the types of vehicles utilizing a particular traffic network.
Another object of the invention is to provide a mechanism for storing, within a vehicle, data collected with regards to that vehicle in such a way that the data might be accessed at a later time.
A further object of the invention is to provide in vehicle processing capability so that the computational load on a centralized computer can be reduced.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a system wherein a network management authority can communicate relevant traffic information to individual vehicle operators traveling over a particular transportation network.
Other general and specific objects of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.